Miners Rest Kindergarten Philosophy
At Miners Rest Kindergarten, everyone is respected as an individual with their own voice, interests, abilities and goals. This outlook applies to all members of the kindergarten community including children, staff, families, external support services and the wider community.
We are passionate about developing meaningful, respectful and reciprocal relationships with every member of the kindergarten community based on a foundation of care, trust and communication. Through these relationships, individuals feel safe and secure in the kindergarten setting which we believe is fundamental to a successful learning environment.
Families are respected as children’s first educators and play a key role. Educators work collaboratively with families to understand their individual values, beliefs and culture. A number of platforms are used to build an understanding of each family, for families to communicate feedback, to share goals and strategies and for families to have input into the program and kindergarten community.
Our educational program and pedagogy focuses on supporting each individual child on their journey of learning and development. All aspects of the program are planned to scaffold children’s learning in areas of identity, community, wellbeing, learning and communication. We operate a play-based program that supports children’s learning in a fun and engaging way; promoting enthusiasm, curiosity, exploration and discovery. We also encourage appropriate risk taking which supports children to develop an awareness of their abilities, take responsibility for their own safety and develop confident identities. Through this approach we demonstrate our commitment to fostering a life-long love of learning. Complementing our play-based approach, we also incorporate structured intentional teaching moments. This provides further opportunities for children to scaffold understandings, engage in different formats of learning, be exposed to new ideas and concepts and develop speaking and listening skills in large group environments.
We promote children’s success and development through clear, reasonable and high expectations. This supports children to feel safe and secure through an understanding of the standards of kindergarten and how to contribute and show respect within a shared environment. We also value the importance of routine and use this to provide consistency and comfort in their kindergarten days.
We believe that the development of social and emotional wellbeing is particularly important in children’s early years development. We promote children’s understanding of emotions and the development of skills and strategies to support social and emotional wellbeing through embedded approaches as well as through explicit teaching. Our children also demonstrate a developing respect for the natural environment, and we are committed to facilitating and building on this through many sustainability practices including growing and harvesting food, recycling and composting.
Through our connection with Miners Rest Primary School, we are proud of our commitment to and quality of transition program to primary school. The kindergarten community is connected to the school through shared support services, familiarity and use of the school environment and a year long transition program involving regular visits to the school environment and from school classes to the kindergarten. Each of our kindergarten teachers are also primary qualified educators and have a good understanding of school approaches and the key similarities and differences between these. Our kindergarten teachers and school foundation teachers work together in a shared Professional Learning Community to share ideas, understandings and create consistencies where there are opportunities between the two environments.
We are a positive and dedicated staff team who take pride in our approach to supporting children in the kindergarten environment. We are committed to ongoing improvement and regularly reflect, seek feedback, collaborate and attend professional development in order to continue developing as individuals and as a team.
Welcome to the Miners Rest Kindergarten community where we celebrate belonging, being and becoming together.
Our goal is to make learning real and fun!
MRK Team
Fees
Our current fees are
Free for Health Care Subsidy holders
3 Year Old Fees: $450 per term
4 Year Old Fees: $450.00 per term standard fee
Session Times
Session times are available from the reception – 5334 6328
Click to download our Handbook.
Here is the link to the City of Ballarat for the Application details.